In re Inst. for Sav. In Newburyport & Its Vicinity

• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
• Writing for the Court: LUMMUS
• Citation: In re Inst. for Sav. In Newburyport & Its Vicinity, 309 Mass. 12, 33 N.E.2d 526 (Mass. 1941)
• Decision Date: 11 April 1941
• Parties: Petition of INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS IN NEWBURYPORT AND ITS VICINITY.

309 Mass. 12

33 N.E.2d 526

Petition of INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS IN NEWBURYPORT AND ITS VICINITY.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Essex.

April 11, 1941.

Report from Land Court, Essex County; C. C. Smith, Judge.

Proceeding by the Institution for Savings in Newburyport and its Vicinity for issuance of a certificate of title to petitioner as owner of land purchased by it at a sale under a power in a mortgage. An Associate Judge of the Land Court ordered issuance of a certificate of title to petitioner and reported to the Supreme Judicial Court the question of his right to make such order.

Order affirmed.

Argued before FIELD, C. J., and LUMMUS, QUA, DOLAN, and RONAN, JJ.

M. G. Ayers, of Newburyport, for petitioner.

LUMMUS, Justice.

By G.L. (Ter.Ed.) c. 185, § 70, after a foreclosure of registered land by sale under a power of sale contained in a mortgage, without any previous decree of a court for foreclosure, the affidavit required by c. 244, § 15, may be filed with the assistant recorder, and the purchaser at the foreclosure sale may present to the assistant recorder the deed under the power of sale for filing and registration, and obtain a new certificate of title. By c. 185, § 64, on a conveyance of registered land, the assistant recorder shall, ‘in accordance with the rules and instructions of the court, make out in the registration book a new certificate of title to the grantee, and shall prepare and deliver to him an owner's duplicate certificate.’ In Federal National Bank of Boston v. Gaston, 256 Mass. 471, 474, 152 N.E. 923, 924, it was said, ‘The recorder and assistant recorder are officers of the land court performing duties for it. Their acts in so doing must be subject to the direction of the court.’ This is made plain by c. 185, § 60. Waverley Co-Operative Bank v. Haner, 273 Mass. 477, 173 N.E. 699;New York Life Ins. Co. v. Embassy Realty Co., Inc., 293 Mass. 352, 200 N.E. 3. See, also, Tyler v. Judges of Court of Registration, 175 Mass. 71, 80, 81, 55 N.E. 812,51 L.R.A. 433.

In the present case the petitioner mortgagee presented to the assistant recorder for filing and registration a foreclosure deed to itself as purchaser at the foreclosure sale, and an affidavit of sale in accordance with G.L. (Ter.Ed.) c. 244, § 15. It presented to him for cancellation the owner's duplicate certificate of title. It asked for a new owner's certificate of title running to itself as the new owner. Everything was regular under the laws of the Commonwealth, and the only reason why the assistant recorder referred the question of issuing the new certificate of title to the court was the possible effect upon that question of the soldiers' and sailors' civil relief act of 1940, approved October 17, 1940. Chapter 888, Third Session, 76th Congress, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix § 501 et seq., reprinted with annotation in 130 A.L.R. 774-812.

The judge caused a notice to issue to the mortgagor, who had given the mortgage in 1926 but who in 1936 became and still is an insane patient at the Danvers State Hospital for mental diseases. This notice was served as directed by registered mail and was also published as directed in a newspaper. A guardian ad litem for the mortgagor was appointed, and reported that he raised no objection to the issuance of a new certificate of title to the petitioner. The judge found as a fact that the foreclosure by sale was regular and lawful, and ‘that the mortgagor is not now, and never has been, in military service within the meaning of the 1940 Act, nor has he ever made any conveyance, mortgage or pledge of the mortgaged premises to any person other than the petitioner.’ The judge ordered a new certificate of title to issue to the petitioner as prayed for, and reported to this court the question of his right to make that order.

The soldiers' and sailors' civil relief act of 1940 does not wholly prevent actions and judgments against persons ‘in military service’ within the definition of those words in § 101(1), much less against other persons. Under § 200(1), a court may enter judgment against a person found not to be in military service, without requiring any affidavit that he is not in military service. There was no error in making the order in this case without requiring such an affidavit. Howie Mining Co. v. McGary, D. C., 256 F. 38;Eureka Homestead Society v. Clark, 145 La. 917, 918, 83 So. 190;State v. District Court, 55 Mont. 602, 179 P. 831;Alzugaray v. Onzurez, 25 N.M. 662,187 P. 549;Schroeder v. Levy, 222 Ill.App. 252;Harrell v. Shealey, 24 Ga.App. 389, 100 S.E. 800.

Section 302 of that act deals with the enforcement of obligations originating prior to October 17, 1940 (Kendall v. Bolster, 239 Mass. 152, 131 N.E. 319) secured by mortgage upon real or personal property owned by a person in military service at the commencement of the ‘period of military service’ as defined in § 101(2) and still owned by him. After provisions relating to proceedings in court to enforce such an obligation, § 302(3) provides: ‘No sale under a power of sale * * * contained in any such obligation shall be valid if made during the period of military service or within three months thereafter, unless upon an order of sale previously granted by the court and a return thereto made and approved by the court.’

That provision has no application where, as is found to be the fact in this case, no person affected by the foreclosure sale was or is in military service. Morse v. Stober, 233 Mass. 223, 123 N.E. 780, 9 A.L.R. 78. It furnishes no reason for denying the certificate of title to which the petitioner is entitled on the facts found. Even though the finding may conceivably be wrong, and some person in miliary service, who has some interest in the foreclosed land and whose rights under the soldiers' and sailors' civil relief act of 1940 would not be terminated by the issuance of the new certificate of title, may conceivably come to light later, that possibility should not prevent the Land Court from acting upon its finding made after adequate investigation. Sometimes a court, in the efficient administration of justice, must act upon its finding of some fact, usually a jurisdictional one, that cannot be so conclusively adjudicated by the judgment that it may not be questioned in subsequent proceedings. Instances are found in the law of administration and in the law of divorce. Hibbard v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 301 Mass. 442, 16 N.E.2d 241;Day v. Floyd, 130 Mass. 488;Whitwell v. Bartlett, 211...